John MacDonald: Why shouldn't beaches be vehicle-free?

Did you see those clowns driving on Muriwai Beach on the TV news last night, just hours after a teenager was tragically killed there yesterday afternoon? 

It was like rush hour and, I’m sure, they were probably hamming it up for the cameras.   

One muppet even hooned past the reporter who was doing the live report - in what looked like some sort of people mover - and then, within a few seconds, they were reversing at pretty much the same speed.  

I could say that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. But I’d be lying. Because, the truth is, I could believe what I was seeing. Because all summer I’ve been seeing people treating beaches as if they were roads. 

And it’s not just four-wheel-drive trucks. Quad bikes are another menace on beaches. 

New Year's Eve, for example, we were hanging out at the beach and there was a quad bike screaming up and down all night. I think they were gathering driftwood and stuff to burn on the fire down where they were a bit further down. 

We were with family and we had some young kids with us, which meant you couldn't totally relax because you had to keep an eye out for the quad bike. Especially once it got dark. 

But, apparently, that’s all fine. Just like it’s all fine, apparently, for anyone to take any vehicle onto a beach and do what they want. 

And yesterday at Muriwai, we had what’s being reported as a young chap taking a ute onto the sand and, by the end of the day, the young woman who was with him was dead, and two others injured. 

According to the reports I’ve seen, he’d been doing burn-outs in the sand and it seems the young woman was thrown from the vehicle when it rolled. She was crushed and died from her injuries. 

As usual when this sort of thing happens, we’ve got locals in the news today that they had seen this type of thing coming and that something needs to be done. And I couldn’t agree with them more.  

The chair of the local community board is one of the Muriwai locals talking today. Brent Bailey is his name. And he’s told the NZ Herald that vehicles on beaches are in direct conflict with all the other things that go on there. 

People doing things like kitesurfing or just hanging out in the sun. Things you should be able to do without having to look right, left and right again - just in case there’s traffic coming. 

If there’s one place where you should be completely free from traffic, it’s the beach. 

Someone else who lives near Muriwai, Ed Donald, says he’s been pushing for change for ages. 

He’s saying- “We still want to go surfing, we still want to go fishing, but all of a sudden we just have this hoon mentality, and it’s just taking control of the beach.” 

And the irony is (if you can call it that), is that vehicles had been banned from Muriwai up until a week or so ago. It was only for a couple of weeks - taking effect on New Years Eve - during the peak holiday period.  

But the barriers are down now and, already, someone has lost their life. 

Now you might say ‘oh it’s not as if the guy hit an innocent bystander. He knew what he was doing and the young woman who died knew what she was doing’. 

Yeah, fair point. They did. And let’s not forget the impact what happened yesterday will have on the driver. 

But in an age where it seems councils all around the country are sticking planter boxes and speed bumps and all sorts of things on roads and streets to slow down traffic and make it safer for pedestrians, we seem to be turning a blind eye to what’s going on at beaches. Where there are pedestrians. Where there are young children. And where there seems to be no shortage of